What is the Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Program

A Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Policy will allow policy holders to protect or keep some of their assets if you have a long-term care insurance claim and need to apply for Medicaid after you have used up your LTC insurance policy benefits. Under the Partnership Policy the amount of Medicaid spend-down protection you receive is equal to the amount of benefits that were paid for your long-term care services from your private long-term care insurance company. For example, if you had a LTC Insurance Partnership Policy with Genworth and they paid out $300,000 in benefits for your care, you have exhausted your benefits and you needed further care so you applied Medicaid, you would be able protect up to $300,000 of your assets.

The Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Program was originated in the 1980's with four state - New York, California, Connecticut and Indiana. In 2005, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was developed and this allowed for all states to participate in the LTC Insurance Partnership Program, of which 40 states do participate in the Partnership Program. The intent of the Partnership Program is to encourage residents of their state to plan for their long-term care needs by purchasing long-term care insurance. This will allow them to get the care they need and further care from the state if they need it without having to spend down all their assets. This is also a benefit to the individual states as well, as it decreases the amount of Medicaid dollars used for long-term care services.

Long-term care insurance is designed to help protect your hard earned assets and the Partnership Program is a way to help you accomplish this! To see if your state participates in the  Long-Term Care Partnership Program visit www.ltcpartnershiponly.com, this is a great site to learn more about the program and to see what your options are in your state!